My Wednesday Rant (holla back black people)

After many conversations, I have come to realize that the typical person is not a seeker of objective truth, but rather, the seeker and defender of self-interest. Most people do not have the intellectual resources needed to gather the objective truth about most issues of our nation and world. Thus, most people’s opinions and beliefs are via proxy. In other words, people become affiliated with ideological movements or groups that they believe best serve their individual interest, then adopt, parrot and defend the platform created and preached by their ideological leaders or spokes persons, without ever giving the issues an objective pondering themselves. The fact is that most Americans are intellectual coach potatoes and only think deeply when there is a necessity or reward. People’s choice to think or ride the opinion of others is similar to the propensity to take the elevator as opposed to the stairs. It’s a combination of convenience and laziness.

All these self-interests result in competition between ideological beliefs, much like the competition between prosecuting and defense attorneys. Success or victory in the competition comes from securing the self-interest of your client and not necessarily from securing the truth. What is true takes a back seat to self-interest. It is not what is know but what can be proved beyond doubt, which is more correlated with the ability to persuade or deceive, than it is with facts and evidence. One can learn much about the value of truth vs. self-interest here in America, by studying the application of our system of justice. When truth is presented that is harmful to client’s interest, then the attorney will attempts to create doubt by obfuscating or attacking the character of the witness to truth, in the hope that discrediting the witness will discredit the truth of what was witnessed. Competition is not conducive to the promotion of truth or justice.

In competition, the side with the most power will almost always win from advantage. Those with or in power get to subjectively define, via influence, what is righteous or truthful so that it always aligns with their self-interest and positions. They also have the power and influence to define weaker competing or threatening entities as hence unrighteous or untruthful. The reason they can do this is by linking the acceptance of the propaganda to the self-interest of others, thereby offering promotion and rewards for adherence. This is why American can commit many immoral and unrighteous acts globally, under false pretext and a certain majority of the masses will always support it. The reason being simply due to the fact that the American system has always rewarded them and therefore they trust that whatever action is undertaken will ultimately be in their self interest. Truth often conflicts with self-interest and create a moral dilemma; thus many people are willfully credulous of false information given out by leaders who they trust without question, because it is the hands that feed their interest.

Intrinsic to competition is the creation of dichotomies or equal and opposite effects. Competitions will always produces winners and losers, because of the relative nature of competition. Competition produces the seesaw effect. If one end ascends the other end must descend. Thus, promoting the failure of others is tantamount to promoting ones own success in competition. Such motives are what inspired slavery and military conquest of resource rich land and territories from others. Indeed, it is why world is so staunchly divided between the rich and poor today. Such is the equal and opposite effect of actions that create detriment as the package deal of creating benefit, poverty as the package deal with wealth and so on. The dominant empirical truth of human history over the last several thousand years is that peoples or groups have lifted themselves up, by putting others down. As the Carthaginian general Hannibal once noted about the competition of war, it is not that I must succeed; rather, it is that others must fail.

So what does this mean for black peoples? We need to recognize that our greatest and most efficient sphere of influence is in shaping black people and not others. Our ability to lament truth in regards to the struggle and plight of our people does little to persuade those whose self interests are in competition with our own and who have benefited from centuries of promoting our failure. There is no amount of truth and logic that will compel people to work against their self-interest and benefit, whether it be psychological, economical or both. We need to therefore focus our attention towards our greatest sphere of influence so as to prevent our people from becoming assimilated by the power, propaganda and bribes of the dominate majority. Our people should not be deciding to join them, just because we cannot defeat them or from the fact that they offer the greatest material return. We should not metaphorically become accepting of the neo master/slave system just because more of us can now become masters and not just slaves.


We as a people are going to have to decide the virtues or lack there of, of mimicking and assimilating the mindset and behavior of the dominant culture. Had black people been allowed mimic the dominant culture of 1850, we would have had many more wealthy and successful blacks in that era. However, most of them would have reached that status via enslaving and exploiting, just as many in the dominant culture did at that time. Thus, do we want success at the expense of righteousness? In essence do we want to sell our souls in exchange for material possessions and social rank?

America is on borrowed status, which is masking this nations real decline. Without the tried and true method of lifting up, by putting others down, that real decline will soon become starkly apparent in our standard of living. That tried and true method may have already begun, disguised or piggy backing off fears of terrorism and rouge states. This neo-imperialism will create further entrenchment of old enemies and create many new ones. Equally troubling in the economic horizon is the rise of the Euro dollar and its threat of usurping the greenbacks (American dollar) hegemony as the world’s standard of currency exchange and oil transactions.

We must remain cognizant of the fact that our ancestor’s slavery and oppression was all rooted in economics. The true test of character can only be measured during times of stress and challenge. The last few decades has been times of plenty, which has promoted increased tolerance, due to the fact that abundance did not create a zero sum competition. This will slowly or abruptly change going forward as America’s economic hegemony makes a relative and absolute decline in the world. Consequently, the economic incentive for racism and discrimination will return and we need to be prepared for diminishing returns, by unifying and planning for this inevitability.

In light of this, the only way that righteous change can take place in this nation and world is by reducing human competition and the conflicts of self-interest that result and by placing truth at the apex of human self-interest. We need to be our brother’s keepers and not their competitors.


Disclaimer: Not recommended reading for those with attention deficit disorder (ADD)